Guardian
of My Soul:Our Heavenly FatherRomans 1:8-17;
Matthew 6:9-13Text:Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven . . .—Matthew 6:9IntroductionIn keeping with this morning’s Children Message, featuring
our young people’s dramatization titled The
Lord’s Prayer, I want to allude to Martin
Luther’s Small Catechism on The Lord’s
Prayer.On the second day of the month of July in the year 1505,
young man Luther—in the customary uniform of a university student—made his way
along a dusty road on the outskirts of Stotternheim, a Saxon village near the
city of Erfurt.As Luther approached the
village, the sky grew dark, ominous. The heavens opened wide, a rain shower let
loose, and a violent storm overcame the startled, scared student.A bolt of lightning cleaved the gloom and
knocked young man Luther to the ground.As he rose to his feet with effort near Erfurt, he cried in terror, “St.
Anne, help me! I will become a monk!” Much
to his mother and father’s displeasure, Luther kept his word, honored his vow
to St. Anne, and fifteen days later entered the Augustinian cloister at Erfurt.It was nearly two years later when Brother Martin celebrated
his first mass and presided at the Lord’s Table.He wanted his father, Hans Luther, to be
present for the celebrative occasion, so the original date set for his first
mass was postponed a month to suit his father’s convenience. Undoubtedly, you
know the history, but we’ll recite it again for our purposes here.Luther faltered at the Lord’s Table, became utterly
terror-stricken at the very words he was reciting in the introductory portion
of the mass: “We offer unto thee, the living, the true, eternal God. . . ”The
terror of the Holy, the horror of Infinitude, smote him like a new lightning
bolt [he faltered—struck down by the recognition of his unworthiness—became
speechless, remained silent as if he would never go on with the mass], and only through a fearful restraint could
he hold himself at the altar until the end.At the conclusion of the mass, Brother Martin made his way
to the Convent refectory to greet his fellow-monks and his father, Hans Luther.After
shuddering at the unapproachableness of the heavenly Father, he now craved some
word of assurance from his earthly
father.How his heart would be warmed to
hear from the lips of old Hans [Luther] that
his [father’s] resentment had
entirely passed, and that he was now cordially in accord with his son’s
decision [to become a monk].They sat down to (m)eat together, and Martin,
as if he were still a little child, turned and said [asked]: [i]A Father-Son EncounterMARTINFather, why do you hate me being here? . . .And don’t say [it’s because] I could have
been a lawyer.HANSWell, so you could have been.You could have been better than that.You could have been a burgomaster, you could
have been a magistrate, you could have been a chancellor, you could have been
anything!. . . . I’ll say just what I
mean.I think a man murders himself in
these places.MARTIN (taken aback)I am holy.I kill no
one but myself.HANSI don’t care.I tell
you it gives me the creeps [here].And that’s
why I couldn’t bring your mother, if you want to know.MARTINThe Gospels are the only mother I’ve ever had.HANSAnd haven’t you ever read in the Gospels, don’t you know
what’s written in there?“Thou shalt
honor thy father and thy mother.”MARTINChurches, kings, and fathers—why do they ask so much, and why
do they all of them get so much more than they deserve?HANSYou think so.Well, I
think I deserve a little more than you’ve given me--MARTINI’ve given you!I
don’t have to give you!I am—that’s all I need to give you . . . I
suppose fathers and sons always disappoint each other. . . . . But I loved you
the best.It was always you I wanted.I wanted your love more than anyone’s, and if
anyone was to hold me, I wanted it to be you. [ii]The Deepest Search in LifeThomas Wolfe wrote:. . . the deepest search in life . . ., the
thing that in one way or another was central to all living was man’s (a
person’s) search to find a father, not merely the father of his (one’s) flesh,
not merely the lost father of his (one’s) youth, but the image of strength and
wisdom external to his (one’s) need and superior to his (one’s) hunger, to
which the belief and power of his (one’s) own life could be united.[iii]Undoubtedly there is adequate evidence to make the assertion
that during his Turmerlebnis, his
tower experience—or the revelation in the tower—Martin Luther underwent an
intense emotional and profound spiritual catharsis, a rebirth out of the matrix of the scriptures.[iv]As he studied Paul’s Letter to the
Romans—particu-larly chapter 1, verse 17—the transforming revelation broke upon
him: we are saved by faith alone . .
. “they who through faith are righteous shall live.”There can be little
doubt that at this particular time--as a result of this particular
experience--when Martin’s power of speech
was freed from its infantile and juvenile captivity, he changed from a highly
restrained and retentive individual into an explosive person; he had found an
unexpected release of self-expression, and with it, [the release] of the many-sided power of his personality.[v]He was now freed from the tormenting image of a wrathful God
and free to love God as a Father.His
deepest search in life to find a father—that image of strength and wisdom . . .
to which the belief and power of his own life could be united . . . that
deepest search was satisfied.That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was his heavenly
Father, the one and only God who encourages us to believe that he is truly our
Father and we are his children, the Father to whom we can pray with complete
confidence, even as children speak to their loving earthly father; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father whose name is holy and in whose name we
pray to keep it holy; the Father whose kingdom comes indeed, regardless of our
prayers, but whose kingdom we pray will come also to us; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father who gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by
his grace we believe his holy Word and live a godly life on earth now and later
in heaven forever; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father whose good and gracious will is surely done
without our prayer, but whose will we ask to be done also among us, while he
defeats every evil scheme and purpose of the devil, of the world, and of our
own sinful selves, all the time strengthening our faith and keeping us firm in
his Word as long as we live; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father who, even without our prayer, gives us
daily bread—not only to us but to all people—and we pray this prayer in order to
receive with thanks our daily bread and all things needful for life; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father who does not hold our sins against us but,
rather, forgives us our trespasses, giving us everything he gives us by grace,
and because he offers forgiveness instead of deserved punishment, we, in
gratitude, forgive those who have sinned against us; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father who tempts none of us to sin but saves us
from the time of trial, watching over us, keeping us from the wiles of the
devil, from the enticements of the world, and from the self-deception of our
own natures; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father who saves us from every evil to body and
soul, and at last with mercy transports us from the troubles of this world to
his glorious presence in heaven; That Father—to whom the belief and power of Luther’s own
life could be united—was the Father to whom belong the kingdom and the power
and the glory as well as our resounding Amen,
fully certain that our petitions are pleasing to him and are heard by him
since he, through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, has commanded us to pray in
this way. [vi]ConclusionSome of us have the good fortune to have an earthly father like this, a father who
is the image of strength and wisdom external to our need and superior to our
hunger; but, for sure—whether we know such an earthly father or not—all of us
are blessed to have a heavenly
Father like this, an eternal Fatherto
whom the belief and power of our own life can be united.In him, our deepest search in this life for a father is
satisfied.In him, we are united to the true Guardian of our souls.g g gNotes[i]See Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, pp. 21, 41-42 for theessence
of the introduction of this sermon.[ii]Dialogue
excerpts from John Osborne’s play titled Luther,
Act I, Scene iii[iii]Thomas Wolfe, The Story of a Novel[iv]Erik H.
Erikson, Young Man Luther, ex
matricescripturae nati, “out of the
matrix ofthe
scriptures,” p. 208[v]Ibid., p. 205[vi]The essence of
this paragraph is in large part Luther’s explanations of the Lord’sPrayer as they appear in Luther’s Small Catechism.